A site dedicated to getting healthy, happy, and free from disease.

Monthly Archives: June 2014

Fourth of July means friends, fun, food and fireworks. It can also mean fat increase if you are not careful.

Here are some healthy tips to keep you enjoying the holiday without penalizing your waistline.

1. Continue to practice your healthy eating habits on the picnic day. Do not skip meals or save calories for the “big meal”. That sets you up to overeat!!!

2. If going to a party or picnic, offer to bring an appetizer and side dish. That way you can guarantee there will be healthy choices for you.

3. Be watchful of your portions and choose NOT to have the dessert!! Instead, maybe bring a box of sugar free popcicles to share with the crowd or have a cup of coffee instead!

4. Make sure that you do not slack off from your daily exercise routine the day of the picnic. Try adding 10 or 15-minute brisk walks twice that day with available family members or the partygoers. Plan active activities such as croquet, bike riding, or taking a hike instead of sitting around and talking or watching TV.

5. If you are throwing the party, have lots of vegetables available, instead of chips only. Prepare lower fat dips and offer salsa. Explain to your guests in advance your determination to make this a healthier holiday celebration, and ask them to keep this in mind when preparing any dish they may be bringing.

6. Stay away from high calorie beverages such as sodas, juices, smoothies, and blended coffee drinks. There are nearly 150 calories in one 12-ounce can of soda or juice. Smoothies and coffee drinks are often 250-500 calories, excluding the whipped cream. Alcohol is packed full of calories and carbs. It can also cause you to let down your defenses and overeat or make poor food choices. All of these indulgences will kick you out of fat burning stage and you’ll have to start over (in a sense).

7 Make sure to have a healthy meal before going to the picnic. That way you won’t be tempted to overeat because you’ll have already fueled your body… ALWAYS plan ahead.

8. At the picnic, choose healthy foods and fill a 9 inch or salad plate. Stay away from the chips and bread and corn and don’t go back for seconds.

9. If the holiday party is at your house, send some of the left-overs home with your guests, especially the desserts!!

10. Remember to eat slowly, which will help you to eat less and feel full and satisfied.

11. During holiday weekends, make your goal to maintain your weight and not to gain any!

12. Be positive. Don’t let your weight and cravings take control of you.

13. Holiday traveling… don’t forget to pack your convenient healthy meals! Put small meals in zip lock bags and use them to cushion around items in your suitcase. Also bring a cooler full of fresh vegetables and water.

14. Remember the reason for the season and focus on ‘fellowship’ and not on ‘food’!

15. Habits are habit forming… People form habits but habits transform people! Let’s Take Shape for Life! Let’s transform our thinking to become choosy about what we eat. Let’s make it a habit to select healthy foods and plan to integrate healthy foods as part of our ‘prescription for life’!

Food journaling is a tool in your toolbox when it comes to healthy eating practices. It can unveil eating patterns and identify areas you need to change by making you constantly aware of what you are putting into your body.

To keep a food journal, be sure to include the following:

Amount – Sometimes being specific is necessary (i.e. weight loss plateaus, blood sugar control) so you get a true sense of what you are actually having and how that may be impacting your goals. Other times, people just want to be more conscientious of what they are eating and in those instances, specificity is not necessary.

Time/Place – Record when and where you are eating and drinking.

Sensory – Jot down what you’re doing while eating and drinking. For instance, maybe you are snacking while watching TV or reading a book. Also note whom you are with. You may find that you consume more while around certain people.

Emotion – It’s important to describe how you feel when you are eating/drinking (angry, sad, happy, nervous, starving, bored, etc.). At the end of each day, analyze how your emotions affected your eating.

The risk of developing cancer during a lifetime is one out of two men, one out of three women, and approximately1,500 cancer deaths each day in the U.S. and of course, increasing.

Studies done in 1997 and again in 2004 on DNA repair documented that the source of cancer is the mutation of intercellular DNA or copying errors– meaning that the DNA are transmitting the signals to the telomeres and the telomeres to the RNA, and the replicating cells break down. Divisions in the errors are caused by extracellular malformations from radiation, chemicals, and our environment.

It is not new news that problems lie within our environment with the pollution in the water, the pollution in the air,and with the pollutants we willingly put in our bodies. We brush our teeth with some commercial form of toothpaste, use a commercial shampoo, a commercial soap, deodorant, lipstick, makeup –whatever – and it is the same. Chemicals in that which we are putting on our body and which we are exposed to in our environment, and our food is extremely damaging. Cancer-damaged DNA is propagated to new cells.

The above mentioned studies started looking at various compounds that are mentioned in essential oils in treating different cancer conditions. The focus was on oils with specific and varying combinations of plant chemicals, protective qualities, coping with environmental stress, destructive killing or inhibiting growth of invaders, and stimulatory traits, promoting cell growth. This research took 74 oils – 69 single oils and five blends or mixtures – and treated cervical cancer, breast cancer, skin cancer, and prostate cancer cell lines. They also tested against non-cancerous 3-T-3 fibroblast cells so they could see a variation in actually what was going on in these studies. Oils showing 50% or more cancer cell inhibition and 25% or less inhibition of non-cancer cell growth were recommended for further study as potential anti-cancer drugs.

These studies have resulted in the introduction of a cell restructuring essential oil blend that heals and repairs damaged cells and has shown some success in eliminating the presence of certain cancer cell structures. It has also been shown to minimize and in some instances eliminate the side effects of radiation and chemotherapy treatments.

If your goal is to lose weight and maintain optimal health and fitness, the quality of your exercise and diet regimen matters more than the quantity, says Skidmore College exercise scientist Paul Arciero.

And he has the results to prove it.

In a paper published by The Journal of Applied Physiology, Arciero and several colleagues report the clear benefits of a multi-dimensional exercise regimen that includes resistance exercise, interval sprint exercise, stretching (including yoga or pilates), and endurance exercise. Add moderate amounts of protein regularly throughout your day, and you’ll be well on your way toward decreasing total and abdominal fat, increasing lean body mass, and achieving optimal levels for blood pressure, blood glucose, and insulin.

Dividing his subjects randomly into three groups, Arciero conducted a 16-week trial in which all subjects consumed the same amount of whey protein — 60 grams daily — but exercised differently. One group was sedentary, another was called on to perform intense resistance training four times per week, and the third followed a multidimensional regimen that included resistance exercise, interval sprint exercise, stretching led by a yoga instructor, and endurance exercise.

When the trial ended, Arciero found that those who had followed the multidimensional regimen showed the greatest health improvements, including the greatest reductions in body weight, total and abdominal fat mass, waist circumference, and blood glucose. In addition, this group experienced the greatest increase in percentage of lean body mass.

Interestingly, all groups showed improvements, even those who maintained a sedentary lifestyle during the period and simply ate the assigned daily regimen of 60 grams of whey protein. That finding supports an earlier study by Arciero’s team that found increasing the amount of protein in one’s diet to as much as 35 percent will tend to decrease total and abdominal fat.

More independent research that supports the Take Shape For Life/Medifast program I coach for. That’s why I am such a strong proponent.

One of the most comprehensive studies of the potential link between reduced sleep and childhood obesity finds compelling evidence that children who consistently received less than the recommended hours of sleep during infancy and early childhood had increases in both obesity and in adiposity or overall body fat at age 7.

While several studies have found evidence of an association between sleep and obesity in young children, few have examined the effects of constant sleep deprivation across time or used measures other than body mass index (BMI), which determines obesity based solely on height and weight. The current study analyzed data from Project Viva, a long-term investigation of the health impacts of several factors during pregnancy and after birth. Information used in this study was gathered from mothers at in-person interviews when their children were around 6 months, 3 years and 7 years old, and from questionnaires completed when the children were ages 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6.

Overall, children with the lowest sleep scores had the highest levels of all body measurements reflecting obesity and adiposity, including abdominal fat which is considered to be particularly hazardous. The association was consistent at all ages, indicting there was no critical period for the interaction between sleep and weight. Lower sleep scores were more common in homes with lower incomes, less maternal education and among racial and ethnic minorities; but the association between sleep and obesity/adiposity was not changed by adjusting for those and other factors.

A study performed last week shows that soda consumers may be getting a much higher dose of the harmful sugar fructose than they have been led to believe, according to a new study. Researchers analyzed the chemical composition of 34 popular beverages, finding that beverages and juices made with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Dr Pepper, Mountain Dew and Sprite, all contain 50 percent more fructose than glucose, a blend that calls into question claims that sugar and HFCS are essentially the same.

The research also shows that the ingredients on some product labels do not represent their fructose content. For example, Goran’s team found that the label on Pepsi Throwback indicates it is made with real sugar (sucrose) yet the analysis demonstrated that it contains more than 50 percent fructose. Sierra Mist, Gatorade and Mexican Coca-Cola also have higher concentrations of fructose than implied by their label. This suggests that these beverages might contain HFCS, which is not disclosed on their labels.